In simple English
This tool connects your website to a payment processor called Stripe (an online service that takes credit card payments from your customers). It handles recurring bills, subscription changes, and trial periods without making you write complicated code from scratch. You need a working PHP website built with the Laravel framework already running on your server. It is free to download under the MIT licence (a legal permission that lets you use, change, and share the code freely), but Stripe charges fees for the payments it processes.
What it is
Laravel Cashier Stripe is a PHP library (a collection of pre-written code you add to your project) that adds subscription billing to the Laravel web framework (a set of tools for building websites in the PHP programming language). It manages customer profiles, subscription states, invoices, and webhooks (automated messages sent from Stripe to your server when a payment happens).
What it is good for
Solo builders who are launching a paid web app on the Laravel framework and want to charge monthly or yearly subscription fees.
- Handles complex subscription tasks like upgrades, downgrades, and trial periods automatically.
- Generates PDF invoices for your customers without extra third-party libraries.
- Listens to Stripe webhooks so your database stays in sync with actual payments.
- Requires you to build your web app using the PHP programming language and the Laravel framework.
- Tires you with maintenance if Stripe changes its API or updates its billing logic.
- Gives you no built-in web interface for managing subscribers, so you must use the Stripe dashboard.
Writing manual Stripe API calls and subscription state tracking from scratch in PHP.
Stripe
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composer require laravel/cashier